LA CROSSE, Wis. – The first two of three nationally ranked matchups for the No. 12-ranked Corban University Volleyball team this weekend in the central United States held up to expectations of Warrior Nation fans watching from coast-to-coast, as the Warriors handed a pair of four-set losses to No. 11-ranked Missouri Baptist University and No. 5-ranked Viterbo University in some extremely important non-conference matchups. In the early afternoon session, the Navy and Gold dealt with the Spartans via 25-23, 25-21, 21-25, and 25-16 set scores, followed by 16-25, 30-28, 26-16, and 25-20 sets against the Viterbo Volleyball Classic host V-Hawks.
"We came out tense against a well-coached Missouri Baptist team, making unforced errors in the beginning but started finding our rhythm as the match went on," explained Corban head coach Kim McLain. "I was proud of the way we came back to play in the fourth after dropping the third set."
When asked to detail the intense contest against the tournament hosts, Coach McLain offered, "Viterbo came to play, and had a great crowd to support them! They too are well-coached and very strong offensively. We knew we had to serve tough to keep them out of system. I was proud of the resilience of this team, never giving up, fighting back to win the second set, which thus set the tone for the third and fourth. We look forward to playing tomorrow against a very good Midland program."
Match 1 | #12 Corban 3, #11 Missouri Baptist 1
Both the Spartans (1-6) and Warriors (3-1) struggled to find any consistency in their opening matchups last weekend, with each program desperately needing a top 15 win to boost morale and continue striding towards making a splash in their conferences and the national scene in 2024. Missouri Baptist was just two points away from taking the first set at 23-21, but a perfectly called timeout by Coach McLain saw Corban score the final four points of the set and steal a 25-23 decision.
After splitting the first thirty points of the second set, the Navy and Gold rallied off five-straight points with three kills, a MoBap attaching error, and a service ace from freshman defensive specialist Dani Street. Corban was able to stretch the advantage to 24-19 and despite a brief comeback attempt by the Spartans, the Warriors were able to close out the set 25-21 and take a 2-0 set lead.
The third set was virtually the exact opposite of the second, with Missouri Baptist taking a mid-set lead and Corban having to play from behind. Another 24-21 score in favor of the Spartans with the Warriors rallying had MoBap calling their own timeout, which cut the Corban streak in its tracks and provided the designated home team with their first set win of the day in La Crosse, 25-21.
Finally dropping a set awoke the Warriors' offense in the fourth and final set to be played in their first ranked matchup of the day, as a .364 attacking clip on 11 kills and three errors across 22 attacks while restraining MoBap to a .091 percentage of their own allowed Corban to earn their first NAIA Top 25 win of the season with a 25-16 set score and four-set victory.
Sophomore outside hitter Emma Bischoff was electric in the Warriors' opener on Viterbo's campus, smashing a game-high 14 kills with 12 digs in the backcourt for her first double-double of the young season. Both sophomore outside hitter Kendra Bittle and junior opposite hitter Makayla Roginski added 11 kills apiece on nearly identical kill percentages, while senior middle blocker Allyson Reid added six kills and was the game leader in blocks with six.
A busy offense led to a handful of assists dealt out by junior setter Abby Guindy and sophomore Nadeiah Howard, who were assigned 25 and 22 assists, respectively, across the four-set match. Guindy pitched in ten digs for another double-double performance. Senior libero Marissa Uehara led all defenders in the Corban backcourt with 17 digs, while Street snagged a pair of service aces.
For the Spartans, outside hitter Elina Arsov was the go-to attacker with 11 kills, followed closely behind by middle blocker Kassie Lee who had nine and just two errors. All-around setter Maiana Coelho dished out a game-high 30 assists and secured ten digs for a double-double outing, while libero Julia Pereira was the game leader in digs with 21 this afternoon.
Match 2 | #12 Corban 3, #5 Viterbo 1
With Viterbo (1-5) having lost the tourney opener to No. 6-ranked Midland University in three sets, the V-Hawks stuffed the stadium with fans to try earning their second victory of the season and first against a ranked opponent. The first set was all Viterbo in a slugfest at the net, as the Warriors were called for numerous block errors after only having two called against them the entire first match against Missouri Baptist. The V-Hawks would go on to take the set 25-16 and hold all the momentum entering the second period.
Once again, the tournament hosts jumped out to a massive seven-point lead at 14-7 and would eventually find themselves in a set-point scenario at 24-20. However, a service error opened the door for Uehara to step to the service line, with Corban needing three-straight points if they wanted to stave off a 2-0 deficit. Back-to-back kills from Roginski combined with a kill from Bittle gave the Warriors exactly what they needed to force a 24-all tie. Despite a kill from the V-Hawks right after, the Navy and Gold earned another pair of points with a block from Roginski and redshirt junior middle blocker Jadah Schmidtke and an attacking error from Viterbo. Four points later, Corban held set point at 29-28 and was able to seal the comeback set win after a massive block from Reid and Roginski.
Having stood strong against a looming 2-0 shortfall and forced a one-all set score through two played, the pendulum swung to the Corban bench and allowed the Warriors to cruise to a 25-16 score in set number three where they pummeled a .300 kill percentage and forced Viterbo into the negatives on their own home court.
Only twenty-five points sat between Corban and another ranked upset, but this time against the tourney hosts in a hostile road environment. Despite the crowd's best efforts, 19 of the first 30 points fell in favor of Corban, which allowed them to cruise to a 25-20 set victory and earn their second-straight win in Wisconsin among some of the nation's most successful programs.
Bischoff was electric once again in yet another double-double performance, as her 13-kill and 12-dig line was just what Corban needed from the all-around Medford native, who added a pair of service aces along the way. Meanwhile, Roginski and Schmidtke added another eight kills and combined for ten of the Warriors' nineteen blocks.
Uehara dug up another 19 balls in the backcourt for Coach McLain's program to 36 on the day in La Crosse, while Howard was the commander of the Corban offense with 20 assists. Guindy secured her third double-double out of four games played with 16 dimes and ten digs.
Viterbo's offense struggled against the Warriors' blockers after their successful first set, eventually settling for a .013 kill percentage amid 37 kills and 35 errors. Outside hitter Izzy Jahr and middle hitter Sadie Treptow led the team with eight kills each, setters Maddie Connor and Cailie Kowal combined for 31 assists, and libero Kenidi McCabe tied Uehara for the game-high in digs with 19 for the V-Hawks.
Corban volleyball will return to the R.W. Beggs Sr. Gymnasium tomorrow morning for an early pacific coast start time of 8am, 10am central time, where they'll battle No. 6-ranked Midland in yet another NAIA top 25 matchup.
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